Escape the Smokies – The Hike

We woke up on our last day in the steamer surprised that we weren’t soaked. The shelter from the previous night was completely full and we were forced to set up outside. We were expecting heavy rain and thunder around 3am and weren’t exactly looking forward to packing up soaked and cold again.

Thank goodness the weatherman was wrong for most of the trip through The Smokies. Otherwise, I fear the trip would have ended long before Katahdin. Today was scheduled to be a short day full of steep hills. We were going to test the ace that Side Quest had given us.

Jessie standing at the Mt. Cammerer fire lookout structure.

Not too far into the walk we came across a highly recommended blue fire which led to a fire watch on Mount Cammerer. It had by far the best views of the trail so far. The construction of the building was impressive on its own, but the clouds rolling in and out of the mountains really brought it all together.

The clouds break to offer a view of the mountains from Mount Cammerer.

Jessie and I sat there for about 30 minutes before finally continuing our descent down the hill. The ace wrap seemed to be doing its job when we reached Davenport Gap. Jessie felt well enough to push on a few more miles and get out of the smoke.

A distant mountain almost completely shrouded in cloud as seen from Mount Cammerer.

Our camp for the night. We set up to the left of the creek bed in this image.

We found a campsite right next to a stream and a waterfall beckoned in the early afternoon. The rest of the day was spent soaking our feet in cold water and relaxing at camp. It was a very short day. More storms were forecast (which barely materialized), and we didn’t want to start climbing a mountain during one of them. We were a little discouraged when it ended up drizzling and making some noise.

The road sign pointing the way to Standing Bear.

We woke up the next morning and took a short hike to Standing Bear to resupply. There are A LOT of stories about Standing Bear, and none of them are very good. They range from small things like resupply food being expired to people doing hard drugs on the porch.

We arrived to see a really nice looking farm property with very strange vibes. The place absolutely stank of weed and a lot of people there just stared at us. We were happy when they indicated the resupply and we were alone.

The resupply room at Standing Bear. It had pretty much what you needed to survive for a few days.

Some, but not all, of the food was expired and we were able to find what we needed; Just two more days of food to get to Hot Springs, North Carolina. We paid for our stuff and got out of there pretty quickly. It just wasn’t our kind of place.

We had asked some of the people who stayed there what it was like, and they all seemed to have a pretty similar consensus. It was a wild place with a lot of hard drugs and strange people hanging around. The male hikers didn’t seem to care too much about the environment, but the female hikers seemed more nervous about the place. We were happy to leave it behind.

Jessie walking up the stairs to Max Patch’s bald head.

We ended up doing a little over 17 miles throughout the day with a long climb up to Max Patch. It was very obvious why it was such a popular destination. The bald one offered incredible views of the smokers we had just left. You could even see the mountain with the fire watch we had done the day before. There’s something about seeing how far you’ve come physically that feels satisfying.

The view looking towards Max Patch as the trail descends into the forest.

After Max Patch, the trail descended gently and led to The Roaring Fork Shelter. There were quite a few people there, including our old friend Rambo and a new addition, Pacemaker. It was nice to catch up with them and also meet new people like Grizzly, Stateline, Frodo and another couple who called themselves The Dude and Monkey Toes.

It’s crazy how quickly our spirits lifted after coming out of the smoke. I had been visiting the park for most of my life, but the hiking was simply a challenge instead of the fun, peaceful experience I knew.

I’m proud of us for having it in the rear view and I’m beyond excited to finally get into town and get clean. We haven’t had a real chance to eat and shower for almost 100 miles at this point, and we’re ready to stop smelling and feeling so disgusting.

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